Some radical ideas about the DADT ruling

Oct 13, 2010

This week, a federal court judge issued an extreme ruling regarding “don’t ask don’t tell”: An injunction, forbidding the U.S. military from enforcing the policy worldwide. As part of the ruling, she gave the government up to 60 days to appeal. Attorneys for the Log Cabin Republicans, which brought the lawsuit, have counseled caution, discouraging servicemembers from coming out.

Now, it’s been a long while since I practiced law actively, but I have some ideas radical ideas about how those in the military should approach this ruling.

• COME OUT NOW. I know the LCR doesn’t think it’s a good idea, but here’s the thing: It is, for now, the law. Just like years ago, when San Francisco and New Paltz, N.Y., declared they would recognize same-sex marriages and performed dozens of them, the act itself has repercussions. The courts had to decide the legality, but in the interim, who could say they were not legal?

Relatedly, everyone who got married in California after same-sex marriage was allowed but before Prop 8 was passed were deemed to be legally and forever married. Those unions were not negatively affected from legal recognition by Prop 8. I would argue that anyone who does come out in reliance on a federal ruling cannot later be discharged, anymore than someone who drives 30 mph can be given a ticket a year retroactively later when they change the speed to 25.

It also provides the Obama administration with political cover. Obama claims to want to discontinue DADT, but is relying, disgustingly, on some bullshit “study” before acting. (The details of that study offend me to the core, as it will evaluate such things as whether gay troops should be given “separate living facilities” or whether the other servicemembers will be “OK with it.” Since when did the military care what grunts think, or act like a democracy? What if a soldier is gay but doesn’t want to come out — should he be forced to so he can be segregated in the pink barracks? It’s really very easy: The ruling should be “gay troops are no different than any others; effectively immediately, they are treated identically.” So if they wouldn’t do something for single gays or gay couples they do for straight singles or couples, don’t do it.) But Obama does not have to appeal the ruling; he shouldn’t. Let the courts decide it for him. Continue on with the legislative agenda just in case, but don’t appeal the ruling.

• HOLD OBAMA TO HIS PROMISES. I mean this in the most threatening way possible. If the Obama administration does appeal the ruling, I personally will do everything in my power to throw my support to someone else. If a black man who is president cannot stand up for minorities and keep the promises he made the gay community as a candidate, he does not deserve my financial support. Or my vote. This is a test, Brarack: If you fail it, do not expect to get extra credit from me.

I know there are many out there who’ll say, “you’d prefer a Republican over a Democrat in the White House?” No. But I know this: If my rights are trod by someone who doesn’t have the political will to respect me, I don’t care what political party he or she is a member of. Keep in mind: DADT and DOMA were signed by Clinton; the first sitting president to express any support for civil unions for gays was W. (Granted, W did it in the context of opposing marriage, but Clinton never came out in favor of it, and even counseled John Kerry in 2004 to come out against civil unions! “The gays will forgive you and it might help you win,” he supposedly said. Shameful.)

We are at the brink of huge changes in the law and recognition for gay rights at a level I could not have conceived when I was a college student. This is no time to back down. This is the time to fight. Bloody some noses. Shame people into acknowledging their own bigotry. Because I assure you, in 50 years, public high school students will look back on how the current culture treated gays with the same puzzled disgust that we look on Jim Crow laws. Orville Faubus and George Wallace were probably more popular in public opinion polls in their day than Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. And how many streets have you seen named after Faubus and Wallace?

This is the time to create our heroes, our Rosa Parkses. Don’t shy away, guys. Don’t go to the back of the bus. Come out and say “In accordance with a federal order, I am saying I am gay. What are you gonna do about it?” Because right now, they can’t. And even if they can down the road, they will appear vindictive to discharge those with the courage to come out later.

6 Comments

Now, at a time when our military is as heavily engaged as it has been for more
than forty years, at a time when individual troops are ordered to repeated
deployments to the war zones, now in a time of military uncertainty and maximum
commitment, is the wrong time for our politicians to advocate for a social
engineering experiment by endorsing an end to the current don’t ask, don’t tell
policy.

Neither the president nor an overwhelming preponderance of those in Congress
have served a single day in our country’s military. For them now to pander to a
vocal minority seeking a liberal interpretation of society’s rules is disturbing
and quite revealing as to the total lack of any consideration of the residual
effects of their actions. To politicize our military in a time of war is as
incredibly contemptible as it is indisputably ignorant of the military as an
institution, a separate and distinct body tasked with the most crucial tasks of
defending our nation in a time of war.

To our politicians I say: Tinker with the civilian world if you must; do not
impose your liberal agenda on America’s military for the purpose of vote
gathering.

Are there gays in our military? Certainly and always has been. “Don’t ask, don’t
tell!”

I agree with what you say in regards to coming out. “COME OUT NOW.” I disagree with the notion that Obama shouldn’t fight this to the SCOTUS. The reason for this is sheer curiosity. Aren’t you curious as to how the “justices” will rule?

If the SCOTUS were to rule against the gays, it would prove, without a doubt, that this country can go to hell now, and it can go to hell 40 years ago. It would prove “equality under the law” is a fake decoration on the entablature of the SCOTUS. If they rule in our favor, wow. I want our moment of truth to come forth, and I would rather have Obama’s JD arguing this over some crazy bigot JD who is willing to burn the court down in order to avoid a positive win for the gays.

Professor Jones, I continue to be proud to have been your student, and I keep learning from you.

While we’re of different political parties, we’re both able to give a candid critique of the history of gay rights and which parties have, and have not, supported us. Granted, there are plenty of Republicans who spew hatred. But, there are plenty of Democrats who promise us the world and never, ever deliver. I don’t know which is worse. Let us remember that it was Log Cabin, often treated as bastard children of the gay rights movement, who funded and pursued litigation for 6 years to overturn DADT.

Take also, for example, Prop 8 in California. Both a Republican governor and attorney general refuse to defend Prop 8 in the courts, which has led the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to ask why in the world a private organization (i.e. NOM) has the standing to fight in place of the governor. Similarly, all Obama has to do here is… nothing. Just sit tight. Don’t fight Judge Phillips’ ruling. Let DADT die in her lap, and he’ll see the demise of DADT without having to do a thing. No politicking. No counting votes. No making deals. Just equality. In less than 60 days DADT can die forever, and Obama will be able to enjoy the credit for permitting it to come to a quick end.

President Truman signed Executive Order 9981 in 1948, which officially integrated the U.S. military. Now, in 2010, a black man serves as commander in chief of the armed forces whose minority was removed (for military purposes) 60 years ago. Isn’t it time that our minority is removed so that we too can fight and die openly for our country? Pleas

I, for one, will never “forgive” the Democrats for setting us back with both DADT & DOMA until they make good on measurable social change by provisioning our community with the same rights that other American Citizens enjoy.

Having written our representatives repeatedly, from the two States I have been a resident of, and adding my monetary support to Democratic initiatives over the course of the past 20 years I find myself at the end of my tenure with the party of ineptitude and falsehood. Granted, I am not running blindly into the arms of the Republicans however, I find it time to tell the Democrats that “the gays” will not in fact “forgive them.” I am proposing quite the opposite. I hold the Democrats, and the “party of change,” personally responsible for the wrongs we have endured at the hands of the Democrats and the lies they have fed to us from Clinton to Obama. We have a democracy in the States, it’s time we remember this and use it.

We need to make our own choices politically and support the parties that support our equality. Forgetting it momentarily to “vote for the lesser of two evils” is not democratic, it’s a cop out. It’s our own fault for accepting the round friendly flavored phrases of our “handsomest politicians” with pockets full of corporate money while ignoring the Independent candidates because “it’s throwing your vote away.” Well, I would rather go on record and say, I will give my vote as an American Citizen to anyone with actual integrity to move the GLBT communities’ equality into the 21st Century where we belong. And let’s face it, Koch has more money than all of us combined, both parties will be above our donations in no time with the restriction on campaign donations removed. Why not put our support behind candidates that at least have the integrity and heart to fight for us?

Lest we forget the fire lanes and police raids of the 70’s, or last year in Fort Worth as it were, it’s time for us to put our money behind candidates that do not belong to the anemic and limited Democrat/Republican choices we have that are blind, corrupt and crippled. If nothing more, we should abandon those who have abandoned us to actually recapture some of our fathers’ fights from the ‘60’s & ‘70’s in the spirit of shining historic events like the Stonewall Riot. We are being wronged every day, it’s our own fault in guise of complacency for accepting the false champions we have been offered.